


Hanging In The Balance

by pippinmctaggart



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-18
Updated: 2006-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 05:57:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3966994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pippinmctaggart/pseuds/pippinmctaggart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to <span class="ljuser i-ljuser i-ljuser-type-P"></span><a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://apple-pi.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://apple-pi.livejournal.com/"><b>apple_pi</b></a> for the beta.</p><p>Written for <span class="ljuser i-ljuser i-ljuser-type-P"></span><a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://fitofpique.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://fitofpique.livejournal.com/"><b>fitofpique</b></a> for Christmas, because she is the sweetest, most wonderfullest Piquearoo a girl could ever have, and she deserves all this and more. Yes, I know it's March, shush.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Hanging In The Balance

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://apple-pi.livejournal.com/profile)[**apple_pi**](http://apple-pi.livejournal.com/) for the beta.
> 
> Written for [](http://fitofpique.livejournal.com/profile)[**fitofpique**](http://fitofpique.livejournal.com/) for Christmas, because she is the sweetest, most wonderfullest Piquearoo a girl could ever have, and she deserves all this and more. Yes, I know it's March, shush.

Billy felt a tug on the back of his t-shirt just before a chin came to rest on his shoulder, and he knew without looking it was Dom. "Hey."

"Need a bit of fresh air," Dom murmured over the noise of the party in his beachfront house. "Want to come with?"

"Aye. Beach?"

"Yeah."

Billy turned and followed Dom, who detoured into the refrigerator to grab two bottles of champagne before leading the way through the crowded kitchen and out onto the almost-as-crowded lanai.

"Dom!" someone Billy didn't recognize shouted as they walked past. "Do you have something to stand the fireworks in?"

Dom pointed to the bottom of the three stairs that led down to his lawn. "There's a bucket of sand there, and the lighter's beside it. Make sure you aim them toward the ocean and not my house, you daft fucker," he grinned, and kept walking.

Billy followed Dom across the short expanse of lawn and down to the sand. They stood for a moment and breathed, listened to the noise of the party echoing in the night. "Further?" Billy asked, and Dom nodded.

Dom headed east, following the edge of the sea-wet sand. "Just say the word if you want to head back."

"Elwood didn't come this year. I don't give a toss about anyone else at that party. No offence," Billy added quickly, knowing Dom was very fond of some of his guests.

But Dom only smiled. "None taken. They're a great lot, they really are. But...I don't know. I wish I hadn't let myself get talked into hosting it. Guess I'd prefer if it was just you and me this year."

Billy spread his arms wide, and his bare skin appeared ghostly in the moonlight. "Look around, mate. I don't see anyone else here, do you? Billy'n'Dom it is."

"Dom'n'Billy," Dom responded automatically. "You're right. It's my sodding party, who says I have to go back if I don't want to?"

"That's the spirit."

Dom gave him a nudge with his shoulder. "See, this is why I need you around. You always remind me of the important things."

"Right. Me."

"You," Dom laughed, agreeing.

Billy looked over at Dom, wondering about the odd mood he seemed to be in, but all the little clues that might tell him how his mate was really feeling were invisible in the darkness. He shrugged it off. "How far are we walking?" he asked. "I've got a pebble in my shoe."

"So stop and take it out, git. When are you going to learn to just go barefoot?"

"When you no longer keep venomous creatures about the place." Billy slung his arm around Dom's shoulder and used him for balance as he lifted his right foot, worked his trainer off, and shook out not only the pebble but what felt like half a pint of sand with it. When he'd put his shoe back on again, they continued walking; Billy left his arm where it was. "How _are_ the creatures, anyway?" he asked.

"Lost another praying mantis. But Kekipi's going to try to get me a pair of miniature brown snakes. He taught me something, by the way."

"Yeah?" Billy smiled. "What's that? How to get your spiders to come when you call?"

"No, of course not. Everyone knows spiders only grace you with their presence when _they_ want to."

"When they're hungry, in other words."

"You got it. They're far too intelligent for anything else. No, Kekipi taught me your Hawaiian name."

"Really?" Billy asked curiously. "What is it?"

Dom grinned. "Pila Poe. How great is that?"

"Noooo," Billy groaned. "Billyboyd--" he said it quickly, cutely, his voice high and saccharine, "--is difficult enough to live with at times. If you tell _anyone_ about that I'll rip your bollocks off and feed them to your new snakes, you bastard."

Dom laughed delightedly. "Aww, poor Pila Poe is embarrassed by his precious name!"

"Oh, sod off." Billy gave him a shove away, into the water just as a shallow wave rolled in, wetting Dom's jeans to the ankles.

Dom jumped and leaped, shrieking. "Augh! Shark! Help, Pila Poe, come save me!"

"Shut up, you daft pillock!" Billy hissed, looking to see how far they were from the house. "That's not funny, if someone heard you they might think you were really in trouble!"

Dom subsided, but still snickered. "All right, all right. Jesus, you sound like Astin. None of that lot will have heard me over the row they're making. Ah, here it is. Come on, follow me, and watch your step."

"Here what is?" Billy asked suspiciously, peering into the darkness. All he could see was that the  beach ended at a great pile of rocks. "I'm not climbing around on those in the dark--"

"Trust me, Bill. I know this path like the back of my head, just follow me and you'll be fine."

"Like the back of your _head_? Why doesn't that fill me with confidence?" Billy muttered darkly, but he watched Dom's bare feet carefully and followed his footsteps as closely as he could.

They climbed up over the rocks and boulders, worn relatively smooth by the ocean on this side of the island that saw almost no volcanic activity, until finally they found grass and then a grove of trees and palms and thick, leafy ferns.

"Dom, where the hell are we going?" Billy asked, starting to get frustrated. It was intensely dark under the leaves, where no moonlight penetrated. "I have no desire to spend the night in the jungle, please." He tripped over a root, and swore. "Fuck. Or to break my neck in here."

"I swear, you just found the only bloody root on this entire path. Trust me," Dom repeated. "Here, take a bottle, and then give me your hand. We're almost there, I promise." He handed one of the two champagne bottles he'd brought from the house to Billy, then held out his free hand.

After only a moment's hesitation, Billy took it. "Gonnae get me fuckin' killed. Why exactly are we doing this?"

"You know those rocks we climbed over?" Dom asked, and Billy wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a smile in his voice. "They go out into the ocean and make a little peninsula, which we're crossing. There's another spit right beside this one. In between the two is a small cove, and it's protected on both sides if the wind gets up, so we can light ourselves a little fire. The best part is, no one from the party will stumble onto us, like they would if we just stayed on the beach by my house. That's why we're doing this."

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" Billy grumbled, and gave Dom's hand an infinitesimal squeeze in apology for his whinging.

Ten minutes later they came out upon beach once more, the moonlight all the brighter after the dense darkness beneath the trees. Billy stopped walking for a moment, just to take in the scene before him.

Dom's small cove was actually a horseshoe-shaped inlet, with the trees almost completely surrounding it. It was so secluded it was almost like being on the deserted island from _Lost_ , Billy thought, and he'd never seen anything quite so lovely as the smooth sand and nearly-still water in the light from the pearly gibbous moon.

"Nice, innit?" Dom asked quietly.

"'S fuckin' _brilliant_ ," Billy breathed.

Dom let go of his hand and led the way to the centre of the crescent-shaped beach, sinking down onto the dry sand well away from the waterline. "Fire first, or champers first?" he asked, holding up his champagne bottle.

"Best do the fire first, don't you think?" Billy grinned. "Could be dangerous, t'other way around. No, stay there, I'll find some wood. Have you got a lighter, or do you plan on going all Boy Scout on me?"

Dom wordlessly dug into his front trouser pocket and held aloft something Billy couldn't really see in the dim light, but assumed was a lighter.

"Right, then. Firewood, coming up." He turned back toward the trees they'd just emerged from, but halted at Dom's loud sigh.

"I'm going soft," Dom said, sounding disappointed. "I was going to make you forage like Robinson MacCrusoe, but clearly I'm going hopelessly soft. See the hibiscus over there?" He pointed in the opposite direction from Billy's destination.

Billy looked. "Ehm..."

"The one with the enormous flowers, you gormless twonk," Dom chuckled.

"Pillock," Billy replied. "What, you want a flower for your hair, petal?"

Dom laughed aloud. "Yes. And while you're over there, there's a stack of firewood behind the shrub."

 

 

Twenty minutes later Billy and Dom reclined on their elbows in the sand, contemplating their modest bonfire as they each swigged from their own champagne bottle.

Billy looked over at Dom's face, ruddy in the firelight, and grinned. "You look fetching with flowers in your hair."

Dom tucked the glowing hibiscus bloom more securely behind his ear. "I know. When the moonbeams light my eyes at the stroke of midnight, prepare to be utterly bewitched."

"How does one prepare for that, exactly?" Billy asked, cocking his head. "I mean, doesn't being bewitched imply that it's beyond your control?"

"I'm _always_ beyond your control."

He snorted. "No argument there, mate." Taking a deep swallow of his champagne, Billy felt the bubbles tickle the back of his nose. He squinched his face up. "This's good stuff."

"Only the best for my Bills." Dom smiled as he said it, but closed his eyes.

Billy returned his gaze to the fire. After a moment or three of deep but comfortable silence, during which he took off his trainers and wriggled his toes in the radiant heat, he asked, "Remember New Zealand?"

"I seem to recall spending a few days there, yeah," Dom said, tilting his head back as if letting sunlight fall on his face.

"Git. I mean..." Billy paused. "Hell. I don't know what I mean." He took another long pull from his bottle, holding it up against the firelight to check the level of the contents. A little embarrassed, he tried again. "I mean the way we were, there, y' know? Before everything hit the fan, before our job was done and the circus really gained steam. It was-- _we_ were. Different."

Dom lifted his head to drank his champagne. "We were."

Billy looked over at him. "You haven't changed."

"Neither have you."

He nodded quietly. "No. I haven't changed much, not since then."

"I know what you mean, though," Dom offered, and Billy wondered why Dom's face suddenly appeared a bit more red in the firelight. _Must be the champagne,_ he decided.

"Do you?"

Dom nodded. "Yeah. And I..." He trailed off, then suddenly sat up. "Bill? What's New Year's Eve really about?"

Billy was taken aback. "What are you on about? The end of the year, what else?"

"But didn't it used to be some sort of pagan festival, before the Romans came along and botched everything up? Didn't all the holidays have their start before Christianity came along and took them over? What was New Year's Eve?"

"I--I don't know, Dom," Billy said cautiously, feeling a strange undercurrent to the question, his gut knotting despite the apparent banality of the conversation. "I thought it was _always_ about the turning of one year to the next."

Dom lifted his eyes to the moon. "When the world hangs in the balance between the past and the future," he said, his voice low. "There is no now, only what was and what is to be."

"You're drunk," Billy murmured, looking away.

"Not quite." Dom lifted the bottle and drank deeply, then burped. "But I will be very soon."

Billy watched him for a moment, the firelight shifting, glinting on the golden hair. "What's going on, Dom?" he asked quietly. "Should I be concerned?"

"Nah." Dom gave him a wry smile. "I'm just in an odd mood tonight, 's all. Sorry."

"It's all right. Anything you want to talk about, now I'm not seven thousand miles away?"

Reaching forward to put another log on the settling fire, Dom shook his head. "Just that I'm glad you're here."

"Me too." A few minutes later, Billy looked over to find Dom watching him. "What?"

"I'm just trying to...do you remember that time in Wellington when you, Lijah, Orli and I went to that pub--the really naff one in that cellar?"

"I need a road map to follow your conversation sometimes."

"You brought up New Zealand in the first place," Dom pointed out, smiling. "So do you?"

"Do I remember being dragged kicking and screaming into that crack dealer's den? That mingin' cowp of a pub? That anteroom to oblivion? Yes, I believe I do recall that. Most traumatizing night of my sodding life."

Dom was laughing. "You're such a piss artist, Bill."

Billy grinned. "Why, thank you. What about it? The pub, I mean."

"That was one of the best nights I had."

Raising one eyebrow, Billy stared at him.

"It was," Dom said defensively, face going even ruddier in the firelight. "I was with my best mates, crammed into a shite little pub, drinking and laughing and--and you were in fine form that night, Bill, you nearly made me piss my fucking pants more than once--and we had our arms around each other, and..." He trailed off, then drank deeply from his champagne bottle.

"It _was_ fun," Billy admitted with a quiet smile.

Dom gasped as his lips released the suction around the neck of his bottle. "Can I tell you something, Bill?" he blurted.

"Of course."

"I nearly kissed you that night."

Billy froze, a swirling ache forming in his chest, surprise like bile in his throat.

Dom risked a quick glance over, turned bright red, and leaving his champagne bottle listing in the sand, staggered to his feet. "Fuck. I'm sorry--fuck." He started to walk away, muttering to himself.

"Dom. Dom, come back," Billy called, trying to ignore the tingling rising along his arms and legs. _It's just the champagne_ , he told himself. "Dom, you daft wee pillock, get back here. Come on, mate."

Dom stopped where he was but didn't turn back, and he tilted his head up to look at the stars. "I was drunk," he said. "I was drunk then, and I'm drunk now."

Billy didn't bother responding to that, instead asking, "Do you remember when we went snowboarding at Whakapapa?"

"'S that the one we went to in the Remarkables?"

"Aye."

"Yes, I remember." Dom still hadn't turned around.

Billy took a drink of his champagne, the level lower than he remembered it. "Do you recall that spectacular wipe-out you had on the back run, when you took my feet out right from under me and then landed on top of me?"

There was a hint of a smile in Dom's voice. "Yeah. Yeah, I remember that."

Billy took in a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. "I nearly kissed you that day."

Dom went utterly still, and then slowly, slowly turned around to look wordlessly at Billy. He dropped his gaze, trudged back toward the fire, and dropped heavily, awkwardly into the sand beside Billy. "Huh." He picked up his champagne again, dusting the sand off the bottom.

"It's quite a turn-up for the books, isn't it?" Billy murmured.

"Can't quite wrap my head around it."

"Yeah." Billy watched the fire, embers already bright hot against the sand. He automatically threw another couple sticks on, eyes tracking the sparks that flew up into the night sky.

"So..." Dom faltered, then started again. "Does that mean...  So you were attracted to me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I was." Billy licked his lips. "You?"

Dom snorted. "Yeah." He drank from his bottle. "You, uh, you once said that you, you found blokes attractive, but you couldn't, you know, see yourself with one."

"Did I?"

"Yes." He suddenly sounded just a little bit angry. "Yes, Bill, you did."

Billy looked down at his hands, wrapped around the dark green bottle neck. "Yeah, well. Maybe I thought that. Before."

"Before what?"

"Before I wanted to kiss you." Billy took a very deep breath, drawing the ocean air into his lungs and holding it for a moment, before letting it out explosively. "Ah, shite, Dom. Are you with Evangeline or not?"

"No, I'm not. Why the hell didn't you ever tell me, Bill?" Dom asked, nearly wailed. "For fuck's sake, why didn't you ever _say_ something?"

"Because I didn't know--I didn't think--" Billy stammered, and then went on the defensive. "Why didn't you? You certainly never had any scruples about sharing who you had your eye on with anyone who would listen--why didn't _you_ say something?"

"Because you said you couldn't see yourself with another bloke!" Dom shouted, putting his hand on Billy's arm and giving him a hard shove. "And seeing as I'm a bloke, I thought that rather put paid to my chances, you bloody sodding idiot!"

Billy raised himself from the sand, the muscles in his arm bunching as he did. "Oh, so it's all my fault, is it? Fuck you!" He shoved Dom back.

"Maybe it _is_ your fault," Dom snapped, and tried to shove Billy harder, but nearly fell over when Billy leaned back to evade him.

Billy gave him a swift push, toppling him into the sand. "Maybe it's not, gobshite." He couldn't help the small, reluctant smile that curved the corners of his mouth up. "Don't spill the champers."

"I'll make you walk back for more," Dom muttered, sitting up again, but after a moment he began to chuckle, and shook his head. "I can't believe this."

"Me neither." Billy took a long swallow of his champagne. "I think this calls for a drink."

"You just had one."

"Another, then. Here's to...I dunno." He tipped his bottle up, and it was only when he lowered it again that he saw Dom hadn't drunk, and was in fact staring at him. "What?"

"Why did you ask me if I'm with Evi?"

"Because you've been so bloody coy about your relationship with her, and it was pissing me off that you wouldn't even tell _me_ ," Billy groused.

"I never meant to be coy about it with you," Dom said quietly. "I guess you were collateral damage. Sorry about that, Bills."

"Yeah. Well."

"Bill?"

"Yes, Dom?" Billy put another stick on the fire, then bit his thumbnail.

"You said you 'were'. Are you still? At all?"

"Am I what?"

"You know very well what," Dom said, his voice tight.

"Yeah, sorry. Well..." Billy paused, considering.

"Well what?"

Billy glared over at him. "Give me a minute, for Christ's sake! I've spent years trying _not_ to think about this, you could at least give me a minute!"

Dom had the good grace to look sheepish, if nervous. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. As you were."

Billy heaved a deep sigh and stared at the flames for a moment. "Yes."

"Yes what?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I ought to bloody well kill you."

"After six fucking years I think I have the right to want to be clear about this!" Dom snapped. "Jesus, Bill, we could've--but you--and then I--and you and Ali--" He clenched his eyes tight and made an inarticulate growling noise.

Billy drank the last of his champagne, tossing the empty bottle aside when he was done. It landed in the sand with a hollow _thunk_. He felt the alcohol in his bloodstream, felt the buzzing at the back of his skull, and suddenly he knew what Dom had meant earlier. _When the world hangs in the balance between the past and the future_ , he'd said. _There is no now, only what was and what is to be_. "All right, Dom, let's look at this logically." He swallowed, and groped for words. "I'm attracted. To you. Are you still, you know, to me and all?"

"Never stopped," Dom answered succinctly, and took a swallow from his bottle.

"So. Where does that leave us? That leaves us with. Well, I'm not seeing anyone, and you're supposedly not seeing Evi--"

"What do you mean, 'supposedly'? I told you I wasn't."

"Yeah, yeah, all right." Billy chewed his lip. "Bottom line is, you're single, I'm single, and we are apparently rather unflaggingly attracted to each other. So."

"So." Dom tipped his champagne bottle up, draining the last of it in one swift swallow. Upending the bottle, he drove it into the sand next to him neck-first, twisting it back and forth to push it further in until it stood on its own. "So," he repeated.

Billy looked over at him. "Should I kiss you?"

Dom snorted. "Subtle, Bill."

"Well, what do you want?" he demanded. "You want me to come over all bashful and hold your hand for a bit first?"

"Wouldn't go amiss, you know."

Billy stared at him, and then suddenly the absurdity of the situation hit him. Smothering a grin, he yawned widely, stretched his arms up, and in a move as old as time dropped one arm over Dom's shoulders.

Dom began to snicker, and then to chuckle, and soon the pair of them were leaning against each other, red-faced and breathless with laughter. "Hey, big boy," Billy gasped, his eyes watering, "come here often?"

"Big boy!" Dom howled, and fell back into the sand, hands clutching his sides.

Billy wiped his streaming eyes, chuckling helplessly. "I think I’m a bit smeekit."

"Smeekit!" Dom giggled.

Billy looked down at him, at his eyes squinched shut and his teeth gleaming in the firelight, his fingers twined in Billy's t-shirt. Billy stopped laughing, though his smile lingered, and he leaned over and pressed his mouth to Dom's.

Dom's sudden, startled breath hissed past the corners of Billy's lips, and one hand rose to grip Billy's bicep with some force; he didn't push Billy away, but nor did he urge him closer. Instead, he turned his head just slightly, aligning their mouths with less teeth and more softness.

Reaching across Dom to rest one hand in the sand, Billy slowly brushed his lips across Dom's, then his tongue ever so tentatively licked and tasted. "Champagne," he murmured, the word hot and damp between them.

"Y-yeah," Dom whispered, his eyes closed now. "You, too."

Billy kissed him again, and everything faded but the feel of Dom's lips against his, the scent of Dom in his nose, the sounds of their slow languid kiss and the crackle of the bonfire. Billy wondered bemusedly if Dom could be as glad, as scared, as thrilled, as flushed as he felt at that moment. He placed his free hand on Dom's chest, his thumb rubbing the sharp line of the collarbone there.

Dom's hand tightened on Billy's bicep, pulling him down, and his other hand drifted up to card through the short hair at the back of Billy's head.

Billy let himself down onto his elbows, lying half on top of Dom, and with an astonishingly nervous flutter in his stomach he teased at Dom's lips with his tongue until they opened to allow Billy access to a heat he never thought he'd taste. He slowly explored the slick inside of Dom's mouth, skirting teeth and tracing ridges and tangling with Dom's tongue until he was dizzy from the sensations sparkflashing through him, and he felt himself beginning to harden.

Dom suddenly groaned and rolled Billy over in the sand, his hands cupping Billy's head, and he kissed him hard--deep and rough and fiercely enough that Billy made a noise in the back of his throat. Billy slid his hands up under Dom's t-shirt and with blunt fingernails scraped the length of his spine, feeling Dom's erection drag against his hip when Dom arched his back against the scratching.

Billy tilted his head back, and Dom took the hint, let his mouth move from Billy's down his chin to his jaw, then kissed the soft stubbled skin underneath, before fluttering his tongue against the column of Billy's throat. Billy moaned and pulled one foot up, his knee splaying wide. "Dom," he rasped, fully hard now. "Jesus, Dom." He insinuated his hands into the thankfully loose, low-slung jeans Dom sported and gripped his bare arse with both hands, pulling him in tight and rocking his hips up until his cock lay sidelong against Dom's.

"Nnngh," Dom grunted, and with more than a touch of desperation in his voice, said, "Bill. Want you so bad. Please." As if embarrassed, he closed his eyes and kissed Billy hard on the lips.

Billy slid his hands around Dom's waist, out of his trousers, worked his fingers in between their stomachs and popped the button of Dom's jeans. As he swirled his tongue through Dom's mouth, tasting nothing now but the flavour of Dom and the heat of his blood, Billy pushed up into Dom's belly with one hand to create a bit of room and undid his own fly. A swift tug and Dom's jeans were around his thighs; a bit of awkward shifting and so were his own.

Dom lowered himself back down, his cock hard and hot against Billy's, and he groaned and buried his face against Billy's neck.

Rolling them onto their sides, Billy wiped his palm on his thigh to ensure there was no sand on it, then reached between them to grip both their erections in one hand and give them a bit of a pull. "Is this all right?" he asked, his voice uneven against Dom's hair.

Dom lifted his head, leaned his forehead against Billy's, his eyes still closed. "God, yes." He clutched the nape of Billy's neck and kept them locked together.

Billy shut his eyes as well, focusing instead on feeling, on the sensations glittering up and down his spine; on the rigidity of Dom in his hand, the thinness of the satin skin of his cock; on the utterly erotic knowledge that their bodies were finally, intimately connected in a way that had fueled his fantasies for years. "You feel so good," he whispered, his hand working them, squeezing, pulling.

"You too," Dom croaked, and his thighs began to tremble. "Billy--Jesus _Christ_ , Bill--"

Billy thumbed the head of his own prick, swiping up the precome leaking from the slit, then dragged that same thumb over Dom's cock as he wristed them hard. He knew for certain that Dom felt the extra moisture and realized what it was when he began to shudder.

Dom's lips parted, and he panted hot, wine-sharpened breaths against Billy's mouth. "Shit--shit--slow down, Bill. Oh Jesus--slow down."

"Not a fucking chance," Billy growled, and redoubled his efforts, his hand pistoning up and down. There would be time enough later for leisure, for love and sensuality and even teasing. This, Billy thought, this was about _need_. He craned his neck forward and kissed Dom ferociously, his tongue forcing its way inside and scouring through Dom's mouth like a grassfire across the moors.

Dom drove his hips up convulsively, and with a drawn-out whimper that Billy swallowed greedily, he came hard, his body like tensile steel.

Billy kept up his fierce tugging on their cocks, feeling Dom's twitch stiffly against his hand as his come spurted out in thickened streams, and Billy threw his head back and began to gasp as the slipperiness slid him nearer to the edge as well.

Dom's breaths were loud, nearly sobs, and he juddered with aftershocks as Billy kept pulling on his softening prick. "C'mon, Bill. Come on," he panted, dropping his hand to grasp Billy's bare arse and knead.

"Almost--there--" Billy ground out, but he was suddenly afraid that maybe _there_ was going to stay there and not become _here_ , because he was so close, but Dom's soft prick wasn't offering the same bone-deep sensation that had strung him out so rapidly to start with and he made a noise of frustration and desperation and then Dom's mouth was at his ear and Dom's finger was tracing a place no finger had ever been--

"Bill," Dom growled into his ear. "Come on."

A tremor swept through Billy's entire body. "Jesus fucking Christ--"

"Come on," Dom repeated, voice low and gruff and the definition of sex. "Come on me. Come on me, Billy."

And then Dom was biting, high on Billy's throat, just below the corner of his jaw, and with a startled shout Billy staggered over the precipice and crashed down the far side, coming so hard his eyes rolled back, closed, squeezed tight. His cock pulsed, his body shook, and Dom's grip on his arse was just painful enough to be perfect as he drove himself up into his own fist. There was a loud crackling bang, and Billy distantly thought he'd done it, he'd actually come so hard he'd broken something, until he opened his eyes again. In the sky above them, golden white fireworks burst with a booming sparkle, and breathlessly, helplessly, Billy began to laugh.

Dom laved his tongue across the red mark he'd left on Billy's skin. "You always laugh hysterically when you come?" he asked, his voice a little uneven and half an octave lower than it had been when they started.

"No," Billy wiped his wet eyes against Dom's t-shirt, unable to stop. "I just finally have proof!" Laughing loudly, he nudged Dom's head up. "Look. Fireworks, when I came. I always knew I had better timing than you!" he howled.

Dom gaped, and then chuckled, and then laughed out loud. "Bastard," he said fondly, nipping Billy's earlobe with his teeth. "Proof my arse. It's a sign, 's what it is."

"Really? And a sign of what, then?" Billy let his head flop back for a moment, trying to catch his breath, and then gingerly unclamped his stiff fingers from around their tender pricks. "Ow."

Dom grunted, then cupped himself carefully. "A sign of..." He faltered and stuttered to finish. "Of, you know, a sign of, of things. This."

Watching the fireworks above--now green and orange--Billy dug his hands into the sand, letting it clump in the semen on his wrist. He abstractedly rubbed it off with more dry sand. "This. You mean us."

"I--I mean-- _Fuck_." Dom rolled away.

Billy realised Dom sounded hurt, and he looked over in surprise. "Bloody hell, Dom, what mad idea have you got in your head now? I'm agreeing with you, you silly tit."

"Doesn't sound like it," Dom muttered.

Billy reached over to tug on Dom's t-shirt. "The world hung in the balance between what was, and what is to be," he murmured just over the sound of the fireworks overhead. When Dom turned his head to look at him, Billy leaned in and kissed him gently, tenderly on the lips.

Dom studied Billy's eyes, doubt warring with hope on his face. "You mean that?"

"What is to be," Billy repeated quietly. "Hell, yes, I mean it."

Joy dawning, Dom wrapped an arm around Billy's neck and kissed him back, tongues tangling, hands stroking and caressing, trousers forgotten around their thighs.

Billy felt like he was trying to make up for years of stifled feeling and desire; the chance to let it out was gratefully seized. Trailing kisses along Dom's crooked jaw, he took a deep breath and said, "If you laugh or call me a girl I'll beat you to a bloody pulp, so help me God, but..."

"I love you, too, Bill." Dom's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh buggering _fuck_. Tell me that's what you were about to say, please. Because otherwise I'm going to have to cut out my tongue with a rusty--"

"It was," Billy beamed. "I do, you know."

Dom's hands gripped Billy's face. "You do, what?"

"Asserting your right to be clear about this again?" Billy laughed when Dom gave his hair a swift tug. "All right, all right, don't get your knickers in a twist." He reached down and shoved Dom's trousers further toward his ankles. "Not that you're wearing any, you trollop. I love you, Dom."

Dom opened his mouth, then closed it again, obviously torn over just which statement to react to. Happiness winning out, he chose the latter. "Good. Me, too." He laughed out loud. "And to think, all it took was a moonlit walk on the beach and a bit of champagne. Never knew you were such a romantic bastard, Bill."

"And don't you forget it. I'll expect flowers and sweets every week. C'mon." Billy climbed to his feet, careful not to stumble over his lowered trousers. "Little dip in the ocean? I want to wash your spunk off my arm."

"Yeah. Romance. That's what I'm talking about," Dom grinned. He clambered to his feet and kicked off his jeans, pulled off his t-shirt. "Might as well do it right. Just don't go too deep, or I might have to shout for Pila Poe to come save us." He dodged Billy's swing and ran, laughing, for the waterline.

Billy tossed a few more sticks of wood on the bonfire and then hurriedly pulled off his trousers and t-shirt, following Dom down to the water at a more sedate pace. "Slow down, yeah? It's dark out here."

Dom had already stopped, only up to his knees. "It feels cold after being by the fire," he warned.

"I figured it might." Billy waded in, breathing deep through the shock of the cool water on the sensitive backs of his knees. "I've been in worse." They walked in deeper together, to waist height. Billy rinsed off his arms and hands, and then they both stood silent, watching the moonlight and the firelight play gold and pearl off the shifting surface of the ocean.

Dom took a step closer, leaning his shoulder against Billy's. When Billy slid an arm around his waist and pulled him in tight, Dom turned and wrapped both arms around Billy's middle and laid his head on Billy's shoulder.

Smiling, Billy adjusted his hold and kissed Dom's hair. "I've got nothing scheduled next week," he said softly. "Shall I stay on for a bit?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that'd be brilliant."

"Okay."

After several long moments of silence, they wordlessly turned and walked out of the ocean, hurrying up to the fire; the gentle breeze was chilly on their wet skin. Shaking out their t-shirts and using them to pat dry, the heat from the bonfire soon warmed and dried them enough to pull their jeans back on. Billy sat down and waited.

Dom stood looking up at the stars for a few minutes, but eventually he sat beside Billy, and they laid back in the sand together, arms and legs entwined and hands caressing faces, shoulders, chests.

"Dom," Billy began, his voice quiet. "I suppose we have some things we should talk about--"

But Dom pressed his fingers against Billy's lips. "Time enough tomorrow. We've waited so long for this, Bills--let's just hang in the balance for a bit, yeah?"

Billy smiled and kissed Dom's fingertips. "Yeah. All right."

"Happy New Year, Bill," Dom murmured.

Billy curled his fingers around the back of Dom's neck and leaned their foreheads together. "Happy New Year, Dom. Happy New Year."

X-posted to [](http://pippinmctaggart.livejournal.com/profile)[**pippinmctaggart**](http://pippinmctaggart.livejournal.com/) , [](http://monaboyd.livejournal.com/profile)[**monaboyd**](http://monaboyd.livejournal.com/) , and [](http://bdotp.livejournal.com/profile)[**bdotp**](http://bdotp.livejournal.com/).


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